Obsidian Entertainment - Feargus Speaks

April 6th, 2007, 11:09

Somehow we overlooked this previously…the Obsidian forums have a feature that started a couple of weeks ago where 10 questions have been gathered from the community for Feargus, who is answering them bit by bit. Here's the latest response:

Any Post Apocalyptic or S-F titles developed by Obsidian in the future?

Two answers in a month, hey at least I'm getting a little better at this. It is funny as you get older that time does seem to just speed on by. Well enough on that tangent.

So, as it turns out, between when this question was asked and today many of you have probably already seen Sega's announcement that we are going to be making an Aliens RPG for them. I can't really go into anymore details about it other than to say it is an RPG and there are Aliens in it. Well I can say a little more in that we are focusing a great deal on the RPG aspects of the game, so no one needs to run into the hills with worry that we are going to make DOOM with Aliens in it and one extra stat slapped on it.

As for future titles, I would like us to continue making both Fantasy games and games placed in other genres - like Post Apocalyptic and SciFi. A number of us have been toying around with the idea of a Post Apocalyptic Fantasy world. There are a number of campaign worlds out there that explore this idea and I think a really cool video/computer game could be made within a world like that. While we couldn't go with the campy 50's feel of Fallout (campy as in the Pip Boy look, not campy as in culture references), I think the tension created by having all the different fantasy societies trying to scrape by and rebuild would make for an interesting world to explore. As for a straight SciFi game, I don't have an real specific ideas about what we might do just yet. I know a lot of people around here love 40K, so I was thinking of talking to THQ at some point about whether they would like to a 40K game that is more RPG than RTS.

Finally, I should probably talk about the twin gorillas in the closet. I'm sure there's a correct analogy in there somewhere, but that's what came to mind. Anyway, I'm speaking of the the KotOR3 and Fallout gorillas. Both of those are games that I and everyone else here at Obsidian would love to make. I don't know if we will ever get the chance, but I do continue to talk with LucasArts about what might be going on with KotOR3. As for Fallout, like I said, I'm not sure if we'll ever get the chance, but I know that I'd love to make another Fallout - plus, I think Avellone's already designed the next 12 of them.

I would really enjoy seeing them work without the constraints of a major name.

I haven't seen a single D&D game produced ever without a developer complaining about being constrained by the license or, usually, WotC. The same is probably true for the SLAM DUNK-loving people of Bioware.

As I understand it from Kharns post, (elsewhere on this forum, in the post about cvg) Interplay probably agreed to sell the Fallout license to Bethesda/Zenimax, since they, Interplay, probably thought that Bethsoft could or would make a hit game = a game that sold fairly or really well. As I understand it from Kharn's post, if Bethsoft's royalties exceeds 1,75 million US Dollars, Interplay also gets 1,75 million US Dollars. And my qualified guess is that Interplay hopes for this to come true as this would mean Interplay's creditors can be paid and there's money in the bank, too.

I also think that Bethsoft probably was the only indie game company that could pay good money for the Fallout license - meaning that Interplay's struggle for survival…
could be a bit prolonged…

Originally Posted by aries100
As I understand it from Kharns post, (elsewhere on this forum, in the post about cvg) Interplay probably agreed to sell the Fallout license to Bethesda/Zenimax, since they, Interplay, probably thought that Bethsoft could or would make a hit game = a game that sold fairly or really well. As I understand it from Kharn's post, if Bethsoft's royalties exceeds 1,75 million US Dollars, Interplay also gets 1,75 million US Dollars. And my qualified guess is that Interplay hopes for this to come true as this would mean Interplay's creditors can be paid and there's money in the bank, too.

We don't know what the royalties deal is, exactly (as in how many copies Bethesda has to sell to reach 1.175 million royalties = unknown), but if royalties agreed reach 1.75 million dollars, Bethesda would pay Interplay 1.75-1.175 = .575 million dollars. Not an unusual type of deal at all, it gives Interplay both cash in hand and later funds.

Also, there's no "sale" of the license, careful with terms like those, they cause confusion.

As for "money in the bank", Interplay currently has 8 million in outstanding debts, while a involuntary bankruptcy case is running against them by plaintives who are owed more than 750.000 USD by Interplay. It'll take quite some barely legal trickery for Caen to get out of that one.

Originally Posted by aries100
I also think that Bethsoft probably was the only indie game company that could pay good money for the Fallout license - meaning that Interplay's struggle for survival…

Bethesda Softworks is not an independant game company, they are a wholly owned subsidiary of ZeniMax Inc.

Originally Posted by Kharn
Bethesda Softworks is not an independant game company, they are a wholly owned subsidiary of ZeniMax Inc.

Technically yes, but ZeniMax was created by the owner of Bethesda Softworks and it shares the same board of directors now. So you could say they are independent in a sense, without Bethesda ZeniMax would probably dissolve pretty quickly in my opinion.

Originally Posted by JemyM
I think the story and the NPC's in KOTOR2 was absolutely brilliant, it's just a shame LucasArts did not give them enough time to finish it.

I was being sarcastic

edit: of course you are entitled to your own opinion though. Combat was just to repetitive and boring for me and the whole random nature of the item system didn't appeal to me. I did get a rather nasty bug where all my character stats would go back to 8 during the level up process (and return to their proper level after - although you would then get less skill points during the level up) so that bug probably affected my enjoyment of the game significantly (I actually the exact same bug once in the first KotOR and it was even supposedly fixed in the latest patch but it wasn't fixed for me).

We have reason to believe at least one other entity made an offer but Bethsoft's was simply larger. I doubt Interplay considered who would make the most sales in the long run…Interplay was (is) so broke, cash right now is the imperative.

Originally Posted by bjon045
Technically yes, but ZeniMax was created by the owner of Bethesda Softworks and it shares the same board of directors now. So you could say they are independent in a sense, without Bethesda ZeniMax would probably dissolve pretty quickly in my opinion.

I'd read up on ZeniMax a bit more and check what they own and who owns the company (not just who is on the board of directors (by the way, ZeniMax pushing its board of directors onto BethSoft does not make BS indie)), before making claims of independance.

Originally Posted by Corwin
Beth is doing it 'in house'!! I'm not sure how many former Interplay employees now work for Beth, but it's likely some do!!

Huh? None, as far as I know, pretty sure none of the former Fallout devs are there.

Originally Posted by Kharn
I'd read up on ZeniMax a bit more and check what they own and who owns the company (not just who is on the board of directors (by the way, ZeniMax pushing its board of directors onto BethSoft does not make BS indie)), before making claims of independance.

I never said they were independent in a technical sense (it was the other dude), but ZeniMax would be stupid run Bethesda with an Iron Fist, I am pretty sure they would give them free reign to pretty much do as they please given that they have been so successful as of late.

Originally Posted by bjon045
I never said they were independent in a technical sense (it was the other dude), but ZeniMax would be stupid run Bethesda with an Iron Fist, I am pretty sure they would give them free reign to pretty much do as they please given that they have been so successful as of late.

Well, look at it this way; imagine that Todd Howard walks up to the board of directors and says "Look, guys, we're real big fans of the original Fallouts and would like to make our Fallout 3 loyal to the originals; turn-based, isometric, and as close to p&p games as can be"

How long, exactly, do you think it would take the board to fire his ass? I'd say about 5 minutes, and that's just to fill in the proper forms.

To make some analogies, this is like Ford's "You can get it in any colour you like, as long as it's black", or the Western Powers' "Palestinians can vote for whomever they want, as long as it's not Hamas". Equally, ZeniMax will have long since (and by long since I mean the moment they pulled the failing Bethesda out of bankruptcy and put them on the road of financial success) made it *very* clear to Bethesda that "You can make any game you want, as long as it follows the exact model of success that the market dictates."

That's not just not "technically" independant, that's de facto not indie, since they have no elbow room. At all.

(not saying that Todd and others don't like the situation just fine or that they would make the games in any other way given the choice, just sayin' they don't have the choice)